How does Matthew’s descriptions of Jesus’ interactions with people help me understand who he is? Help me decide how I’ll respond to him? Help reframe my current circumstances? Ask those questions as you listen in and read Matthew 9.

Jesus’ radical mission wasn’t about fitting into religion or even inventing a whole new one. An accusation against Jesus’ followers becomes the opportunity for him to declare the extraordinary way that he himself came to redefine and fulfil religion and to do something remarkably NEW.

There are countless debates about Jesus' mission just as there are disagreements about the fundamental human problem. A lot of times many people attempt to fit Jesus into their own scheme of things. Yet the Bible explains that Jesus came to forgive sin and transform sinners. That was his radical mission.

Do you like confrontation? For Matthew, getting at and showing who the real Jesus is will be the way to get at your response to him. What sort of man is this? And how should we deal with his confrontation? Listen in.

With just one simple touch – quite suddenly, I’m a follower! What sort of follower are you where Jesus is concerned? It is no exaggeration to say that Jesus is confronting us with the kind of following he is after. Listen to what he says in Matthew 8:18-22.

Is it possible that your impression of Jesus is just not quite right? As Matthew’s gospel account moves into new territory here in chapter 8-10, he’s going to demonstrate that Jesus’ powerful teaching is matched by his powerful action. Listen in.

"One small change" thinking works with something like healthy eating – switch out white bread for wholegrain. Jesus is saying something a lot more radical; not one small change, instead, he's describing a two-ways choice for those who follow him.

Imagine a scenario where you having been following Jesus, but then suddenly go off-grid. You start to live, not with a dependency on his directions, but with an attitude of rogue self-direction. Could you be vulnerable to that kind of Christianity? Jesus appears to think so as he warns his follows of two dangers before gently urging them to restore their lines of dependency on him.

If you are a follower of Christ, you have a radical calling to reach out to the world with the message of new life in Christ! It’s time, Paul says. Allow the fact that Christ is Lord and Christ is your life to reshape all the relationships with other Christians and in the family… but don’t stop there… reach out to the people around you with the message of this new life in Christ!

Paul explains that relationships in the family and beyond it are to be transformed when people become Christ followers: Christ is your life. Christ is your Lord. The instructions he gives are framed by the overlay: You are serving the Lord Christ. So what does this mean? Find out in this next message in the Colossians series.